Even the Best Fall Down Sometimes
by Julia White
Summary: Ron tells Hermione things she knows, but doesn't want to hear.


**Even the Best Fall Down Sometimes**

**by Julia White**

**Harry Potter /Song Fic**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of it's characters nor do I own the line **_Even the best fall down sometimes._ **That belongs in the song Collide by Howie Day and all credit for it should be given to him. **

**A/N: On a further note this story was orginal written by me shortly before HBP was release and I've edited slightly to make it fit at the end of HBP It was written with the inspration of a drawing by a fan of Harry Potter ... said picture can be found at this link (just take out the spaces):** www . Livejournal . com / users / andreanna / 18133 . html # cutid2

They sat in the Great Hall, cluster in a tight group removed from everyone else. Hermione mused as she thought back over the past six years. They had just lived through the hardest and although there had been loss before nothing compared to losing Dumbledore.

_Even the best fall down sometimes._

She remembered the first time she had met her two best friends and as she looked over them now she realized how wrong they had been about each other. First impressions can often cloud reality. Their first impressions had been distorted. Harry was perceived as just The-Boy-Who-Lived. Ron was just poor, and Hermione was just a brain. They were all so much more than that. Harry was a hero, a friend, smart, caring, emotional, and low in self esteem. Ron was loyal, brave, logical, clumsy, and had a short temper. Hermione was brilliant, scary, daring, worrisome and shy.

_Even the best fall down sometimes._

Hermione still had a hard time coming to terms with the truth of that statement. It was something her brilliant mind could not wrap itself around. The truth however, was sitting in front of her.

She gently pushed a stack of buttered toast in front of Harry in hopes of encouraging him to eat. Harry only sighed and pushed the toast back towards Hermione. Running a hand roughly through his hair, the deep scars carved into his hand glimmered briefly in the light. _I must not tell lies._

Hermione opened her mouth to argue again but was stopped short by the heavy hand on her shoulder. She looked to her right and saw Ron's stern face warning her not to push it today. Shaking her head slightly to indicate she would not be deterred she turned in time to see Harry striding away from where they were eating breakfast.

"Damn it Ronald!" she cried slamming a fist into the table, feeling tears beat at her eyes.

The sky above them hung low, gray clouds threatening to dump their loads onto the heads of the sixth years heading out for Herbology. Hermione bit her lip and stared at the ceiling pushing away the feelings of hopelessness.

"You shouldn't push him so much." Ron's voice was measured, even and steady, prepared for the enviable fight.

"Someone needs to take care of him, if he doesn't eat he's going to die!"

The hopelessness was pushed away by anger. Not at Ron but at everything in their lives that had screwed everything up. Anger at Voldemort and Bellatrix and Malfoy and Snape. Anger at the unfairness of it all.

_Even the best fall down sometimes._

Instead of continuing the fight for everyone in the Great Hall Ron stood grabbing Hermione's arm and pulled her out into the Entrance Hall.

"Well he's going to die anyway!" shouted Ron when the had arrived in the hall.

Hermione was taken back by Ron's blunt statement; she slapped him before she could think it over.

"You can't honestly believe that, can you?" she asked grabbing his shirt the red mark on his cheek pulsating slightly.

Ron gently touched the pulsating hand on his face. He grabbed her arm roughly and pulled her closer to him, in one swift movement he crushed his lips to hers.

The kiss ricochet threw her sending shivers down her spine and making her knees buckle.

"You know I believe it, you know it's true." he said in a stern voice after releasing her lips. "You know it's true." with a tug of his arm he shook her. "Damn it Hermione we're going to lose him. Sooner or later, we... are... going... to... _lose_... him." Ron dragged the last six words out shaking her with each one.

Hermione shook her head looking to the ground. Her arm hurt, Ron's fingers dug into the flesh even now.

"Even the best fall down sometimes." Ron quoted her own thoughts. "Isn't that what you always tell me? Well guess what! _**He's**_ the best Hermione! _**He's**_ the hero! AND HE'S GOING TO DIE!"

Letting go of her arm Ron strode off toward the dormitory. At any other moment she would have told him off for skiving off class, but at this moment she didn't care.

Ron was right, Harry_ was_ the hero, the _best_, but he wasn't the only one. The best fall down, the best die, and Harry was the _best_ hero. And Ron was the_ best_ friend. And Hermione was the _best_ brain.

Her only question was who would be the first to fall?

Because in her heart she knew that Ron was right;

_Even the best fall down sometimes._

**A/N: even for one shots and song fics reviews are what I live for so please please hit that little button and tell me what you thought (even if you hated it)**


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